For the those that haven’t used paid social ads before, Facebook Ads can seem a little overwhelming. With so many different metrics, ad levels, targeting options, and other things to click, it’s easy to get lost in it all and potentially waste your budget. The good news is that, once you’ve learnt the basics, Facebook Ads is a really smart and intuitive platform that can help to connect your business with your eco-conscious travellers. The platform also includes ads for Instagram, which can be effective for reaching younger audiences.
However, it is something of a myth that Facebook ads will get you instant results – it certainly can, but there is no guarantee of that. It takes a certain amount of testing to find the right formula that works, and what works well for one tour operator or hotel may yield zero results for another.
To get the best out of Facebook ads, it’s important to understand where and when they’re most effective. You see, social media ads are an interruption. People don’t go on Instagram, Pinterest, or TikTok to watch ads; they’re there to be entertained or informed or to connect with friends and family. Therefore, they’re generally not in a buying mindset. However, done correctly, paid social ads are one of the best strategies around for accelerating brand awareness and interest in your services.
Think about it. How many people do you think see a Facebook ad for a $5,000 holiday package and book it there and then? Very few, if any. On the other hand, have you ever seen a competition to win a free tour or hotel stay and entered? You’re not the only one.
Facebook ads should not be used as a sales pitch. They need to be something that offers genuine value. For a tour operator, you could offer a free downloadable travel guide to the destination you specialise in. For hotels, maybe a discount code or a free upgrade for those who sign up through the ad. And for destinations, you could provide a virtual tour or a curated list of must-visit spots.
Here are 10 tips for getting the best out of Facebook Ads:
Test, Test, Test
If there’s just one thing that you learn from this article, let it be this: A/B testing – AKA split testing – is absolutely crucial to finding success with Facebook ads.
Be sure to test around 3-5 different variations for your audience and creatives for each campaign, and don’t put all your eggs in one basket. For example, you may want to target travellers that are vegan against cyclists and people who like the brand Patagonia.
You can always reduce the number of audience and creative variations as the campaign exits the ad learning phase and matures, but at the start of any campaign, always conduct split tests and trust the data that is generated over your gut feeling. Then, optimise your campaign based on key metrics – usually cost per result.
Understand Key Metrics
When you dig into the different metrics available on Facebook Ads, there are literally hundreds to choose from, so make sure you understand and prioritise the most important ones. Some metrics will have greater significance than others depending on the campaign type, but “results”, “results rate”, and “cost per result” are the most important across the board. For any campaign, you should focus on increasing the results and result rate and lowering the cost per results.
Be wary of vanity metrics such as impressions and reach – these look nice and shiny on paper, but unless they translate to any meaningful action, they are not worth pursuing. For example, if your campaign generates 1 million impressions, but only 12 people visit your website, quickly throw that campaign in the bin.
Other common metrics include CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions), CTR (clickthrough rate), and CPC (cost per click). These carry more weight than impressions and reach, but it really depends on the campaign type and what you are trying to achieve.
Install the Pixel or Conversions API
The Facebook Pixel and Conversions API both connect your Facebook Ads account to your website, enabling you to generate deeper and more accurate insights on how your ads are performing.
Installing the Facebook Pixel can be tricky, but there are tools like Google Tag Manager that can simplify the process. The Conversions API, on the other hand, is much more technical and will likely require the assistance of a web developer. However, the Conversions API provides the most accurate data and can track the most important website conversion events right the way through to booking confirmation.
Unfortunately, the Facebook Pixel cannot track actions on third-party booking platforms or popup booking windows. Indeed, this is a big problem for travel businesses, making the Conversions API a must-have integration if you want to get serious with Facebook ads.
Use Authentic Imagery
The most important aspect of any Facebook or Instagram ad is the image or video. It’s what draws the eye and sparks initial interest. However, it’s not enough just to use any image or video. If you are going to use stock imagery, just don’t bother with Facebook ads – seriously. What makes your travel business truly unique is your guests. Sure, a drone photo of a beach or an epic video of Machu Picchu may look great, but people can’t relate to that. They want to see candid pictures and footage of real people who have experienced your services. After all, your guests are what make your business unique.
For bonus points, get your staff in the pictures too, but try to avoid the staged group photo with thumbs up galore. Additionally, video almost always performs better than photos, so invest some time in crafting your creatives to get the most out of your ad campaigns.
Try Dynamic Creative
Dynamic Creative is a handy tool which can be toggled on within the ad set level of a campaign. It is very handy for streamlining and accelerating the split testing process, particularly for beginners.
Rather than creating a different ad for each and every creative variation, including ad copy, images, or call-to-action (CTA) button, Dynamic Creative allows users to add up to 10 image or video options within a single ad, plus 5 different ad copy variations, 5 headlines, 5 link descriptions, and 5 CTA buttons. This means that a single Dynamic Creative ad could contain up to 6,250 combinations of any of the creative elements. As the data from these ads is collected, the Facebook Ads algorithm will automatically prioritise the creative elements that are performing best, thus maximising your budget and generating the most results.
Don’t Adjust Your Budgets Too Often
It is important to monitor your ad campaigns frequently, but be careful not to adjust your ad budgets too often or by large amounts. Typically, a campaign will require a few days for Facebook to work out the best people to show your ads to – this is called the learning phase. However, the learning phase can be reset and sent back to square one if you change your budget by more than 25% every three days. Therefore, if you want to scale the budget of your ads effectively, do it slowly. Do not increase the budget of a campaign from $10 to $50, or edit the budget every single day. This will erase all the hard work the algorithm has done, and you will see an instant drop in results.
Use Retargeting Audiences
Arguably the secret sauce of Facebook Ads, retargeting ads are a must for re-engaging people that are already familiar with your business. Interest and lookalike audiences can be effective, but retargeting audiences are comprised solely of people who have visited your website, app, or Facebook or Instagram page. They usually have a higher cost per result compared to interest or lookalike audiences, but the quality and intent of the audience is much higher. For example, you can retarget all of your website visitors, the top 5%, 10% or 25% (based on time spent), visitors of specific web pages, or people who completed certain actions, such as those who signed up to your newsletter.
Creating retargeting audiences is more complicated than interest audiences and requires the integration of the Facebook Pixel or Conversions API, but their importance cannot be understated.
Experiment with Advantage+
AI and machine learning are all the rage these days, and Facebook is certainly no stranger to the technology. In Facebook Ads Manager, you will come across various options called Advantage+ – Facebook’s AI-driven tools. Advantage+ can be used at various ad levels, including optimising your budget and finding audiences that will get you the most results. Although great for beginners as it simplifies the whole Facebook Ads campaign creation process, it gives you less manual control and can make it more difficult to identify who your ads are being shown to.
Theoretically, Advantage+ should yield the best results as it is driven completely by data, however, that is not always the case. It is definitely worth experimenting with though, especially as the technology is improving and Facebook is making it more difficult to use the manual tools on the platform.
Set Up Customised Columns
By default, your ad campaigns will be displayed in Facebook’s default metric columns. These are useful but somewhat basic. You can edit the metrics to your taste using the customise columns tool.
Each advertiser has their own preferences and, again, every business is unique and has different priorities. However, the most important options to toggle on aside from results, results rate, and cost per result are budget, last significant edit, amount spent, and delivery. The first three are fairly self-explanatory, but “delivery” is the one that will tell you if your ads are running successfully or not. If you don’t include the delivery column and your ads stop running due to some error, it can be difficult to tell. Be sure to include it in your custom columns.
Choose the Right Campaign Type
This is why most people using Facebook Ads give up. You need to ensure that you select the campaign goal that is most closely aligned with your business objectives. Choices include awareness, web traffic, leads, and conversions, plus a few others, but these are the most common.
Each campaign goal will generate results very differently from one another. For example, an awareness campaign is designed to generate as many impressions as possible, so the CPM will be low, but the CPC will be much higher than a web traffic campaign. On the other hand, web traffic campaigns get the most clicks, but fewer more meaningful website actions such as bookings or enquiries than conversion campaigns. Each campaign type has their own pros and cons.
BONUS TIP: Be Wary of Recommendations and Facebook Reps
In your Facebook Ads Manager dashboard, you may sometimes see recommendations from Facebook. And, from time to time, you may also receive unwanted calls from Facebook Ads reps that encourage you to create new campaigns to get more results.
It is important to be conscious of the fact that Facebook’s priority is not necessarily to help you make more money, it’s to help them make more money – anything else is just a bonus. While the recommendations can occasionally be useful, make sure you question them and do not blindly follow them.
Conclusion
Facebook Ads can be confusing (and frustrating) at times. But once you have learnt the basics, tried it out, and run those all-important split tests, it can be an effective marketing channel to amplify your travel brand and reach new potential customers.
If you want to learn more about Facebook Ads, how they can help your business, or would like help with getting set up or managing your campaigns, please get in touch. I have created, managed, and optimised Facebook ad campaigns for over 50 travel businesses, including tour operators, hotels, and attractions all around the world. I have seen what works and what doesn’t, and I can help to connect you directly with your target audience